to pin men like Connor and Tyce down was like trying to capture smoke in a sieve.
And maybe she’d found Tyce a little more attractive because she knew he would never offer her the very thing that scared her the most: an emotionally intimate relationship. She’d been the apple of her parents’ eye, the baby girl who had her entire family wrapped around her finger, loved and adored until she woke up one morning and heard that the biggest part of her life was gone and wasn’t ever coming back.
She’d avoided relationships outside of the people who lived in Connor’s iconic brownstone fondly referred to as The Den—her brothers, Connor, and Jo, Linc’s mom and the woman Connor hired to help him raise three orphans. She had girlfriends she enjoyed but whom she kept at an arm’s length, and she wasn’t much of a dater.
Tyce had been hard to resist. Sage had been in love with his art for years. His work was detailed and exquisite, full of angst and emotion. From their first meeting, admiration and attraction swirled and whirled and she’d quickly said yes when he suggested dinner. They didn’t make it to a restaurant; instead they’d tumbled into bed and Sage finally understood the power of addiction. She craved Tyce with a ferocity that scared her.
After six weeks of fantastic sex, Sage realized she was on the brink of falling in love with Tyce and couldn’t, wouldn’t allow that to happen. Terrified, she did what she did best, she made plans to run and immediately booked a ticket to Hong Kong, telling her brothers that their Asian clients needed her attention. The day before her scheduled flight to Asia, Connor passed away and her entire world changed. Connor’s death allowed her to put the distance between her and Tyce she’d been seeking with her trip to Hong Kong.
And Connor’s death reminded her of why it was better to keep her distance from people and that she was wise to avoid emotional and intimate relationships. It hurt too damn much when the people she loved left her life.
She had enough people to love, enough people to worry about. And now—Sage placed her hand on her stomach—she had a baby on the way, a little person who would become the center of her world. Her baby, she ruefully admitted, was one person she had no choice but to love, someone she couldn’t push away.
Well played, Universe.
What did having a baby mean to Tyce? Sage wanted to ask him but, judging from his give-me-space expression, he wouldn’t answer her. Would he walk? Would he want to be involved? If he wanted contact with his child, how would that work? What if he wanted to co-parent? What then? When she’d texted him she’d been consumed by the idea of telling him, needing to get the dreaded deed done. She hadn’t thought beyond that. Well, she had thought about how sexy he was and how much she wanted to make love to him again...
Like those thoughts were productive. Besides, them going to bed was exactly what led to their current predicament. Then again, one couldn’t fall pregnant twice. Jeez, Sage, pull yourself together, woman!
Tyce abruptly stood up, nearly tipping his barstool with the force of his movement. “I need to get out of here.”
“Okay, well...” Sage bit her bottom lip and looked around. “Give me a call if you want to chat about this some more.”
Tyce looked like a hard-assed warrior about to go to battle. “Oh, hell, no, we’re leaving together.”
Sage frowned at his high-handed comment. She wasn’t ready to leave. This cocktail party and exhibition of the Ballantyne family jewelry collection was the culmination of their latest PR campaign to attract new customers. Her family was all in attendance and she was expected to stick around. Not that anyone would notice if she left... Her brothers Jaeger and Beck were both slow dancing with their women—Piper and Cady—and she was the last thing on their minds. Her oldest brother, Linc, who’d brought Tate, his son’s temporary nanny, to the party, was nowhere to be seen.
Sage was sure that she could leave and no one would be any wiser but that would mean leaving with Tyce and that wasn’t an option. “I don’t think so.”
“Walk out with me or I swear, I’ll toss you over my shoulder and walk you out that way.”
His alpha bossiness only turned her on when they were naked but since they weren’t—and would never be again—his terse tone ticked her off. She opened her mouth to blast him and closed it again at the determination in his eyes. She could either leave walking or over his shoulder and she didn’t want a scene to ruin this fabulous evening. Sage glared at him, picked up her designer clutch and walked with him into the foyer of the ballroom. She collected her coat and went to stand by the elevators.
The doors opened, Sage followed Tyce into the cube and pushed the button for the first floor. As the doors closed, the spacious interior shrunk with a big, broad, freaked-out man inside.
Tyce slapped his hand against the emergency stop button.
“What the hell, Sage? You’re pregnant?”
Obviously, he was taking some time to process the news. Sage winced at his shout, his words bouncing off the wood paneling. She lifted her hands as the elevator shuddered to a stop.
“Okay, calm down, Tyce.”
Pathetic as it was, it was all she could think of to say. Even furious, he was ludicrously good-looking. Blue-black hair cut stylishly with short back and sides, equally dark eyebrows over those black sultry eyes. When he smiled, which was, in her opinion, far too rarely, he could charm birds down from trees, criminals into converting and start polar caps melting. Sage wished that she could say Tyce Latimore was just a pretty face but he was so much more than that. He was tall, a few inches above six foot and his body, that body she’d licked and explored and teased and tasted, was all muscle honed from a lifetime dedicated to martial arts. Tae Kwon Do, judo, Krav Maga...they’d all contributed to creating a body that was spectacular and spectacularly sexy. The hair on her arms lifted and her fingers ached to touch him. Her off-the-shoulder silk dress felt abrasive against her sensitive skin and want and need danced through her.
Focus, Sage. Sheesh.
Tyce pushed his jacket back to place his hands on his hips, his expression summer-storm vicious. “Are you messing with me?”
Sage just barely restrained herself from rolling her eyes at his question.
“Yeah, Tyce,” she sarcastically muttered. “I crave your attention that much that I’d make up a story like this to play games with your head!” Seeing his still skeptical face, she shook her head and, needing support, she leaned her back against the wall of the elevator. “I am pregnant. Since you’re the only guy I’ve slept with in the three months—” Three years, she mentally corrected, but she wasn’t telling him that! “—I think it’s safe to assume that the kid is yours.”
“But we used condoms,” Tyce said, pushing his shaking hands into his hair.
Sage blushed. “That first time...you did slide in without a condom. You put one on later but maybe...” Lord, this was embarrassing! “...something slipped past.”
Tyce stared at her, his hands linked behind his head and his expression stricken with panic and fear. “I can’t be a father, Sage. I don’t want to be a father. I don’t want kids!”
Sage assumed as much.
Sage reached around him to release the emergency stop button. “As I told you, that’s not a problem. I don’t expect anything from you. You can carry on living your life as you always have.”
